TERRAS: Playing with style is key for Biddlecombe

CHAIRMAN Nigel Biddlecombe is excited to see the brand of football the new-look Terras are setting out to play this season, and believes it will be a style that will attract punters through the gates of the Bob Lucas Stadium.

Weymouth hosted the likes of Torquay United and Plymouth Argyle during pre-season, and at times in those fixtures enjoyed the lions’ share of possession against clubs two and three steps above them in the football pyramid.

And while Biddlecombe is chairman of the club, first and foremost he is an admirer of good football, and he is backing the Terras to deliver a product that the paying public want to watch.

“I know that people want to see the effort and the ability out there from the players,” he told Echosport.

“They don’t want to see the ball with snow on it, and Jason (Matthews) has the ethos of playing good passing football, so has Craig Laird who is going to work with him, and so has Chris McPhee, Paul Maitland, Micky Greeno and Jake Richmond in the reserves.

“Overall, I think it is very exciting and I hope that the people in Weymouth and the surrounding areas will join us down here.”

But as well as a good pattern of play, football is a results-based business.

If the Terras are going to get bumper crowds, they have to have something to play for throughout the course of the season, and a strong beginning to the campaign is imperative.

Biddlecombe added: “We do need to get off to a good start. Traditionally we aren’t the best of starters but I think we have the squad and the experience to do that.

“As far as the gates are concerned, like any football club we need people through the door and the one thing we all know about Weymouth is that if we get success on the park it will bring the people in.

“I also think that if we don’t get off to the start we want I don’t see us in a position of having to worry. I think we will do the business this year.

“I am not going to say that we are going to win the league or anything like that but we will cause people to look up and that’s what we want.”

A major part of the chairman’s buoyancy is down to the squad assembled by Jason Matthews over the summer.

The wheeling and dealing of the Terras’ boss has impressed Biddlecombe no end, as has the way Matthews has sold the club’s prestige to his new recruits.

“Considering everything we have been honest about with the budget, I think Jason has worked absolute miracles to bring a good squad into the club,” he added.

“He has managed to talk players into coming down to the Bob Lucas Stadium on sensible money within the budget.

“I think he has done fantastically and has not stopped working.

“Several of the players that we have brought in this year had rival offers and I know for a fact that Jason’s personality and the name of Weymouth Football Club, as well as the set up, encouraged them to join, and the whole club, especially Jason, can be proud of that.

“If the club can be proud then I guess I can be as well.

“The efforts of Ian White and his committee with the Wessex Fantasy Football must also be thanked, plus other supporters who have dug deep to help the club out and boost the budget.”

And with playing personnel in place and pre-season over, the chairman claims a top-10 finish in the Southern Premier League would be acceptable this term.

He said: “What I would say is that a good target is to have a good, confident season, a season which doesn’t haemorrhage money as it has been over the years, with a team on the park that will bring the public in.

“If we can finish in the top-10 I will be a happy bunny. We should be a top-10 side if it goes our way and we are injury free.”